We are economists writing about economics: Karl Smith, an assistant professor of economics and government at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina; and Adam Ozimek, an associate at an economics consulting firm. As most in our profession are eager to tell you, economics includes just about everything, so we'll be blogging -- with varying degrees of success -- about the economy, markets, politics, science, technology, philosophy and culture. We both come from a similarly vague libertarian ideological perspective, but we've been called neoliberal as well, and idiosyncratic might be the best adjective to use.

Some Thoughts on Gun Laws

I wanted to make a couple of quick observations about the gun law discussion occurring in the wake of the terrible tragedy in Aurora Colorado. First, as someone who is generally pro gun rights, it’s not my first instinct to write anything in the wake of tragedies involving firearms, but rather remain respectfully silent. But I also understand the motivation of those who want stricter gun laws to take this time to discuss policy. And we cannot both discuss gun laws and also insist on silence from everyone on one side of the discussion.

One question to ask is, in the presence of stronger gun laws what would the shooter have done? The IEDs and explosives that filled his apartment suggest that strong illegality wouldn’t have stopped him, as explosives like this are obviously very illegal. This also tells us that even if all guns were somehow kept out of his hands he would still have had extremely dangerous killing tools at his disposal. But realistically I am skeptical that laws could keep guns out of the hands of those determined to get them. Gizmodo had a revealing article recently about an online gun market where just about anyone can buy just about any gun, and have it shipped to them in small, unsuspicious pieces. Consider this description:

The Armory began as an offshoot of The Silk Road, notable as the Internet’s foremost open drug bazaar…Now guns, ammo, explosives, and more have their own shadowy home online, far from the piles of Dutch coke and American meth. But the same rules apply: with nothing more than money and a little online savoir faire, you can buy extremely powerful, deadly weapons—Glocks, Berettas, PPKs, AK-47s, Bushmaster rifles, even a grenade—in secret, shipped anywhere in the world.

A black market in guns is not new, but moving online means it’s now easier for someone to have access to these markets without ever leaving his basement. The shut-in is no longer held by back his lack of connection to black market networks. As the Gizmodo article says:

….there’s every reason to believe that, with a little patience, a lot of money, and uneasy trust, these things could have been in my hands—or the hands of anyone else. Say, someone who wanted to go on a domestic shooting spree, assassinate a world leader, or any infinite number of other nefarious things you can do with guns and armored vests.

You can argue that strict gun laws may reduce the number of gun related assaults and murders, and this is worth discussing, but it does not seem plausible that it would stop people like this shooter.

Another thing to consider is why we have such lenient gun laws in the first place. Some commentators would have you think that this is due to the outsized influence of a small group of radical pro-gun zealots and organizations. But according to the most recent Gallop poll, 47% of Americans own a gun.

You might reply that you only want to ban assault rifles, so that a lot of the 46% of gun owners wouldn’t be affected. But polls also show that 53% of Americans are against an assault rifle ban. The same polls show that support for more strict gun laws overall is down to 43% in 2011 from 78% in 1991. Currently 44% say they want gun laws to stay the same and 11% say they want them to be even less strict.

As things stand today, the majority is not being held back by the wishes of a bunch of old rich white guys in the 1700s or the desires of a radical pro-gun lobby. The majority has the gun laws that it wants. The fact that guns and the laws we have are popular doesn’t make a moral case for them. But if you want things to be different in this country you should start with these facts, because this, and not just some radical minority group of zealots, is the uphill battle you are facing.

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